Virgin: Prelude to the Throne

Rating:
Summary: England's greatest Queen as a vulnerable Princess...
Review: Great Harry, England's King Henry VIII, is dead. Nine-year-old Edward is now King Edward VI, a boy powerless to stop his uncle Edward Seymour from stealing power as Regent. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth retires to life in the country with her stepmother Catherine Parr, the Queen Dowager, and her new husband Thomas Seymour. But it is soon apparent to young Bess that a very powerful presence in Chelsea House has eyes for her, and drives nearly everyone mad with his charms. He wants Elizabeth, not bothering to hide his lascivious desires, and he'll do anything to acheive the ultimate goal: the Crown...
I read the hardcover edition of this book and found it appalling. Thomas Seymour was a cold-hearted, greedy, selfish wretch, the way he plotted to get what he wanted. Even so, this is a good read!

Rating:
Summary: England's greatest Queen as a vulnerable Princess...
Review: Great Harry, England's King Henry VIII, is dead. Nine-year-old Edward is now King Edward VI, a boy powerless to stop his uncle Edward Seymour from stealing power as Regent. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth retires to life in the country with her stepmother Catherine Parr, the Queen Dowager, and her new husband Thomas Seymour. But it is soon apparent to young Bess that a very powerful presence in Chelsea House has eyes for her, and drives nearly everyone mad with his charms. He wants Elizabeth, not bothering to hide his lascivious desires, and he'll do anything to acheive the ultimate goal: the Crown...
I read the hardcover edition of this book and found it appalling. Thomas Seymour was a cold-hearted, greedy, selfish wretch, the way he plotted to get what he wanted. Even so, this is a good read!

Rating:
Summary: Bewitching
Review: Maxwell has delivered a deftly written novel that covers Elizabeth's life during the reign of her brother, Edward VI, and illustrates how Elizabeth, even in her formative years, was full or grace, dignity, intelligence and cunning. The portrait Maxwell paints is one of a young girl unsure of her position in the world, yet fiercely proud of her heritage. Elizabeth is both worldly and naive, an irresistable combination. We experience Elizabeth's first pangs of love and lust, her burgeoning friendship with Robin Dudley, and the conspiracies set against her by her own people. A brilliant concluding novel to Maxwell's trilogy. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Purely Fictional,,Elizabeth Was A Virgin
Review: Robin Maxwell has it almost exactly right, but not quite. The detail of her book is astounding and fills in the period with the appropriate characters in her usual high level of style and wit.

However, truth in this case is stranger than fiction: Elizabeth was sent to Cheshunt in May 1548, after her well recorded encounter with her step-father, Thomas Seymour. Conventional historians portray this as Katherine Parr taken precautions and separating the two.

A closer look at the situation reveals a deeper motive, Princess Elizabeth was already pregnant. She gave birth on July 21, 1548 to a son, who was taken and placed in the home of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford. John de Vere was forced into a marriage with Margery Golding by Edward Seymour (Lord Protector) and his secretary William Cecil. The bond between William Cecil and the young Princess was to last the remainder of Cecil's life, because he was the one who solved her pregnancy problem. Thomas Seymour never knew he was the father. The young boy was raised as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. He was a known poet, author, theatrical producer in the court of Elizabeth. He is best known by his works under the pen name William Shakespeare.

Elizabeth eventually had five more children. Four by Robert Dudley. The last was Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, the young man to whom Shakespeare dedicates Venus and Adonis and Lucrece.

This work fills in the imaginative details of the period. But leaves out the critical one, Elizabeth had a child in 1548. Truth is stranger than fiction. The book is almost right on.

Paul Streitz
Author
Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating account of little-known part of Elizabeth's life
Review: Robin Maxwell is an excellent writer who brings her flawless research and sense of pacing to the high drama that was Tudor England. Although many people know the basics about Elizabeth I and the story, better than any melodrama or soap opera, of her father Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn, most people haven't heard about her life as a teenage princess and the challenges she faced in the house of her stepmother and her stepmother's husband, the charming Thomas Seymour. In Maxwell's hands, this becomes the story of Elizabeth's coming of age and also of how she first learns the art of "spin" that serves her so well later on. That alone makes the novel absorbing. But in addition, Maxwell's book is engaging and sexy and brings Elizabeth alive!

Rating:
Summary: Purely Fictional,,Elizabeth Was A Virgin
Review: Robin Maxwell is doing nothing different here. Queen Elizabeth, England's greatest queen, has had many stories and films mad about her that portray her as a woman who not only had [realtions] with men but motheredd children in secret. All of these stories are false. There are many theories disputing her prized virginity. Queen Elizabeth will continue to fascinate people worldwide. She reigned at a time when it was radical for a woman to be empowered, at a time when much of the history has been shrouded by myth and fiction. The time after Henry the 8th's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the British throne, is still very much wrapped in fiction.

Queen Elizabeth's "thing' with Thomas Seymour was [physical]. However, Thomas Seymour molested her as a teen, seduced and hoped to control Elizabeth as his ambition was to marry the future queen and become king. It is possible that the young teenage Elizabeth had a crush on Thomas Seymour. Although he was married (to Elizabeth's stepmother Katherine Paar) he was handsome, he was daring and need I say more ? Young women know what's it like to have a crush on an older, attractive man, especially one who was as interesting as Thomas Seymour. However, even if there was a crush, Thomas merely wanted to use Elizabeth as means to an end- that end being his claiming the English throne. When Katherine Paar died at childbirth, Thomas Seymour proposed to Elizabeth, who wisely refused him. Thomas Seymour was eventually executed and Elizabeth imprisoned temporarily since it was thought that she was in on the plot. ELIZABETH DID NOT HAVE A CHILD BY THOMAS SEYMOUR. It is absurd and purely fabricated for the sake of sensational literature to claim that William Shakespeare was the son of Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth. Also ELIZABETH DID NOT HAVE CHILDREN BY ANY OTHER MAN. If Elizabeth had relationships with men, there are a number of ways to look at them:

1 Platonic- romantic. Although she may have wanted to marry a man and mother children, Elizabeth knew it would mean that her husband had to be fit to rule England if he outlived her. It was a dangerous time. The Protestant versus Catholic rivalry could erupt into violence and war, To Elizabeth, only she was capable of ruling England properly and she was. Her relationships with such men as Robert Dudley of Leicester and Robert Devereaux Earl of Essex were romantic- but not [physical]. They were strong friendships.

2. Safely [physical]- IF and that's a big if in my opinion, if Elizabeth did engage in [physical] intercourse with men (as is insinuated in the movie Elizabeth with Kate Blanchett in 1999) then Elizabeth and her lovers practiced a form of safe [realtionships] during this time (use your imagination). Perhaps [the physcial part] was not involved but other methods and there are reports that some women had the knowledge of how to prevent pregnancy, even if these women were considered "sinful" or were prostitutes or courtesans. If Elizabeth did use protection and avoid pregnancy, she did so without the knowledge of the court or the entire realm of England. What was more important is to rule in her own right as "Virgin" Queen even if "virgin" was...only a slight truth.

I hope these two theories help establish more truth. At any rate, altlhough this novel is very well written and presents exciting fictional versions, it is almost an insult to the Virgin Queen for in my opinion she was still a virgin.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I have ever read!!!
Review: This book is amazing. It gives a wonderful description of an area of Elizabeth's life that few have ever explored. You really get a good sense of the times as well as the characters. A MUST READ!!